African American Babies For Adoption

About 30 percent of all children in the U.S. foster care system are African American, the second-highest racial presence to Caucasian foster children (40 percent). African American children are traditionally harder to place, so much so that a racially mixed child is sometimes considered to be of "special needs." In 2009, about 27 percent (about 74,000) of the children who exited foster care were African American, while 43 percent (or 118,000) were Caucasian. While this is inclusive of adopted and reunited foster children, the number of adoptable African American and Caucasian were represented about the same - a fourth of adopted children were African American and just under half were Caucasian.

In 2005, National Public Radio reported in its show "All Things Considered" that a few hundred African American children were being adopted by couples outside of the U.S. A child's ethnic background and racial appearance can weigh heavily in an adoptive individual or couple's decision. If a couple isn't of two different racial backgrounds, their decision to adopt a child who does not appear to be related to them may result in identity issues as the child matures or put a lot of pressure on the family to talk about the adoption. Some couples are not interested in inviting that possibility and open door into their family's personal business.

Unplanned pregnancy trends reported by the Guttmacher Institute in January 2010 suggest that African American and Hispanic pregnancy rates are on a rise significantly higher than that of Caucasian women. States with the highest rate of unplanned pregnancies among African American women between the ages of 15 and 19 are: New York, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.